Nishinari - West Success

In the early 2000s, I traveled to Japan following a sense of adventure and spent a year and half (unbeknownst to me at the time) living in one of the most dangerous and impoverished neighbourhoods in the country, Nishinari. The name is roughly and ironically translated into ‘west success’ which is a slight I am sure is not not lost on its inhabitants. Nishinari is widely controlled by the Yakuza and homelessness is rampant. Like most rich countries, the disparity between the haves and have-nots is quite jarring. Just a ten minute bike ride into the heart of the city, you can see the opulence of the wealthy and the indifference that the rest of the city has for the population of this small ward. After returning in 2008 with my new appreciation for documentary photography and black and white film camera, I took a week to photograph the living conditions of some of the people who call this part of Japan home.